The Solite Barn, June 1998 Report
on The following are edited and expanded reports from the HVVA Newsletter, Volume 3, Number 6. (Click on all graphics for a larger view.) Saturday, August 18, 2001 nine people attended a short tour of two barns in the Town of Saugerties, Ulster County. They were Jean Goldberg, Alvin Sheffer, John and Marian Stevens, Hank Zigler, Jennie Marshall, Alec Wade, Barry Benepe and myself. It was organized by the Saugerties Historical Society and HVVA. The first barn visited was the 3-bay Dutch barn on the Northeast Solite property. I had learned about the barn from Greg Huber, some years ago, when he had tried to interest the Huguenot Historical Society in moving it to their museum site in New Paltz. They showed no interest.
An effort has recently begun in the Saugerties Historical Society
to obtain the building for its 1.5-acre museum site at the 1724 Kierstead
stone house in the Village of Saugerties, a few miles away. It would
be an ideal solution for preserving this important building, The project
would involve not only the work of moving and restoring the barn but
an archaeological and historical survey of the site that includes
the foundation of a house and a small intact stone building. The Solite 3-bay Dutch barn (Uls-Sau-19) is one of about 6 surviving examples known in the Hudson Valley with a major/minor rafter system. This rafter system was first identified in the Nieuwkerk/Kaufman Dutch barn (Uls-Hur-2) in Hurley. Few barns have positive dates of construction but the Nieuwkerk barn is inscribed "1766" on an anchorbeam. In many ways, including the steep pitch of its roof, the low height, 9feet, of its side walls and the spacing and number of minor rafters, the Nieuwkerk barn seems to be the earliest of the examples known and so it is estimated that The Solite Dutch Barn and Carriage Barn the Solite barn was built circa 1770, December 2001, photograph by John Stevens although the Solite barn includes some earlier framing features such as lap-dovetail anchorbeam braces In 1963 John Fitchen visited the Nieuwkerk barn and numbered it "42" in his registration of 76 Dutch barns. He noted the gouge-cut marriage marks on timbers but the barn was full of hay and unfortunately Fitchen did not get to see the rafter system and he remained unaware of this Dutch barn feature. In Greg Huber's second edition (page 189) of Fitchen's book, The New World Dutch Barn, he refers to the Nieuwkerk barn as one of three Dutch barns in Ulster County with major/minor rafter systems extant. There are probably a total of 100 Dutch barns extant in the county. "Seventeen other barns in Ulster County," Huber writes, "have evidence to varying degrees of this pre-war barn type." In other writing Huber refers to the possibility of this rafter system's use in Bergen County, New Jersey. The rafter system of the Solite barn is not a New World tradition but the survival of a European, and I believe Dutch tradition with Medieval origins. We have very few examples of pre Revolutionary barns. Most of our experience is with the 19th century or late 18th century examples almost all with common rafters but these early major/minor rafter system barns suggest that Hudson Valley architecture of the 17th and early 18th century may have had more Old World features than we are aware of today.
The
last barn visited was The oak frame of the Solite barn is in generally good condition. A good roof and recent repairs to one wall plate and replacement of several rafters has stabilized and saved the structure. It no longer has a threshing floor and not much of its sills survive. The Brink barn has a wood pegged threshing floor in good condition and many original features, like the latching system for the wagon doors, that could help in the restoration of the Solite barn. In both barns the longitudinal struts on the cow side have been removed. Saturday,
August 25,2001 The Hornbeck farm was visited by Hellen Wilkinson Reynolds who described the house and its history in her classic 1929 book, Dutch Houses of the Hudson Valley before the Revolution, (see page 207). She noted the inscribed "AHM 1776" date in the barn and speculated that it might also be close to the date of the Dutch stone house on the farmstead. At the Grace farmstead, we also jacked and placed blocks under the wheels of a box wagon with wooden spooked wheels and two independent sets of wheels that were sinking into the moist mud floor of the cellar of the granary. The wheels seem in good condition. Wagons and barns were made for each other and both are endangered in the Hudson Valley. I returned to the Hornbeck barn a week later with Bob Hedges to estimate repairs to the side entrance barn and we moved a few more parts. I acquired a 2-foot section of a notched manger strut for a future museum.
Disassembly of The Solite Barn. (upper left) Bob Hedges and crew disassemble the Solite carriage barn, April 2002 (upper right and lower right) Jim Kricker and crew remove the ridge pole, December 2003 (lower left) Upper purlins and rafters removed, December 2003 The removal of the light and delicate 45-foot long 4-sided ridge pole and two upper purlins was a unique situation that required good planning and teamwork. Return to the Site Map for HVVA Return to the Opening Page for HVVA Copyright © 2004. Hudson Valley Vernacular Architecture. All rights reserved. All items on the site are copyrighted. While we welcome you to use the information provided on this web site by copying it, or downloading it; this information is copyrighted and not to be reproduced for distribution, sale, or profit.
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